Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for April 17, 2024

Right. Dangle’s books are so insanely popular that he’ll sell and autograph thousands of them during this local convention.

Gee, thanks, Harry, for stating where you are. The sign you’re standing next to didn’t make it crystal clear enough for the average reader. Just saying “I see you brought your own books to sell” or even “…to sell at the festival” wouldn’t have been sufficient?

U-MAUL IT. hehehe

Eh he must be feelthy reech to be able to preents that many books.

How is Lillian holding that box? It doesn’t have any handles and there’s nothing to grab on the corners.

I think Batty just loves to say “Ohioana”.

Love the name of that rental company.

I miss Harry’s band cap and sunglasses.

This comic is a little vague…where are they again?

“I see you brought your own books…!”

Well, her car didn’t have enough room for all of his.

“I see you brought your own books.” “Well, yeah, that’s the freakin’ point of attending this thing, isn’t it?”

Happily, the Ohioana Book Festival is a real thing (over 120 authors and illustrators at Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Library, on Saturday, April 20, 2024 from 10:30am-5pm. free to the public.)Also happily, the festival will NOT include any books written by egomaniac band leaders ;)

I bet Lilian’s books will sell better.

Those are the remnants of the first printing that didn’t sell.

Planning on a big ’sale"!!!!!!!

Considering these two “authors”, I hope there are a lot of insomniacs at this book show looking for help.

I bet those are boxes of band turkeys he brought by mistake.

Where’s Crankshaft?

Given the immense fuss Batty makes about this event every year, and the fact that I, living just the other side of Indiana, have never heard of it, I decided to look up just what the fuss is all about.

The first five Google results (and eight of the first eighteen) are from the sponsors of the event. Google hit number 18 is a blog post by none other than Tom Batiuk himself.

It’s also interesting that the Festival’s application page stresses a desire for original works and authors who have not previously appeared. Batiuk has been something of a regular, and it’s worth noting that his submission for 2024 (The Complete Funky Winkerbean Volume 13) is another collection of previously-published comic strips. The page also states It is Festival policy to not repeat a book that has already been featured in the Festival (boldface in the original), so it will be interesting to see if the inevitable blog-entry photo of his booth this year features Dead St. Lisa’s Story yet again…

Or worse… will the “Lillian and Dinkle at the Book Fair” story arc feature the return of Les Moore, hawking the (fictional) Dead St. Lisa’s Story book? I shudder at the possibility.

Following up on yesterday’s discussion of how the story [sic] was able to go from “Lillian suggests Harry submit his book to the festival” to “Harry’s accepted” in under 24 hours, I found this interesting tidbit on the festival’s website:

“An Author Selection Committee, which will be comprised of librarians and book professionals with diverse backgrounds, will consider the submissions and choose who will be invited. The bulk of invitations will go out in January 2024.”

Does not exactly sound like a night-before-the-festival process to me.

Y’know what I found most interesting about this strip? That Lillian apparently drives a 1957 Ford Galaxie 500.

id rather play golf with todd dinosaur

You… you mean there’s people out there who haven’t read his book?

i wonder if batiuks only groupie D.Q will be at this book affair

Optimist and realist….

What the heck is “Ohioana” supposed to be, anyway? Something near the border of Ohio and Indiana?

Well, at least he’ll have vehicle large enough to haul all the unsold books to the recycling center.

Oh! It’s the old “If something is worth doing, it’s worth overdoing” joke. The joke would be funnier if we hadn’t seen it so often. Recently, we’ve seen Ed order too many eclipse glasses, Ed inflate too many air mattresses, and Ed’s porch completely covered with Bean’s End packages.

I know it’s not easy coming up with a new joke every day, but Batiuk has a long career with a massive archive to steal from. Why use the same joke over and over? Dan Davis doesn’t seem to have issues stealing art from the archive.

Harry is an incredible Optimist.

Does each book come with a Free Band Turkey?